Parawing session today!!!
Rising tide - nuking winds - and a little more wave than I would have preferred.
Solo mission - Duke and Prayot ran the Voyager Race; Roland wasn't going out until much later.
I brought No.34 out. I want to start using it more for parawinging. I also used the AFS UHM 85cm mast. With all the chop I'm glad I had this mast.
I feeling the need to start stepping down the front foil size from the Enduro 1300/HA43 to something else - but I'm not sure which foil and also maybe not just yet.
I had both parawings with me today - but with all the whitecaps, even the Maliko 4.0 was realistically too big (thinking Flysurfer POW 2.5)
The waves were actually pretty good sized - most likely up from the strong tradewinds. And with the rising tide, that seemed to accentuate their vigor also.
I took my time getting situated - just to make sure nothing went wrong (flying solo remember). I would just wait for a lull then work the parawing-board-foil to get up before the next set lined up to break. It took me a while to get to the wind line initially, but eventually I got into the stream.
The blue lines were all at the front end. The winds were easterly so I don't know why the wind line was so far out. You could even see the heavy texture on the water - but still couldn't get up early on.
I tried to keep everything in slower motion today - again primarily to not get into a bad situation, but also to get a better feel for how each component was working.
I originally was aiming to get three runs up on foil in - that would have made me feel accomplished. Instead, I got in multiple runs and I made every jibe.
One thing I learned was turning downwind, the apparent wind drops off and the wing just drifts - which I eventually took the opportunity to retract the PW. I did it three times and the third was perfect. I rode the wave I was on pretty much like a prone setup (which made me think I need to push the foil-mast forward just a touch - felt like not enough front foot pressure).
That felt like an accomplishment!!!
I also got an inbound start while in regular foot stance (first time doing that). In fact I didn't ride goofy foot at all today (I didn't want to risk a crash).
With the harness line, the range on the Maliko 4.0 is decently large. Despite all the strong gusts and steady stiff wind, I wasn't really ever overpowered beyond being able to manage.
I think before I size down on the foil, I maybe should size down on the parawing...
It's awesome to progress!!!
W:51/FD:92/PW:14/S:4
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